Roadside memorials for dead animals?

PETA members ask permission to note Berne animal loss

Dennis Yusk, Times Union

By Dennis Yusko

Updated 10:44 am, Friday, April 25, 2014

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants to erect this monument at the scene of an April 15, 2014, crash where 11 cows died. The animals died when the tractor trailer they were being transported in rolled over. (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants to erect this...

Firefighters work the scene of an accident on Tuesday, April 15, 2014, in Berne, N.Y. The accident involved a truck hauling cows and some of the cows were killed in the accident. ( Tom Heffernan Sr. / Special to the Times Union )

Firefighters work the scene of an accident on Tuesday, April 15, 2014, in Berne, N.Y. The accident involved a truck hauling cows and some of the cows were killed in the accident. ( Tom Heffernan Sr. / Special to the Times Union )

Firefighters work the scene of an accident on Tuesday, April 15, 2014, in Berne, N.Y. The accident involved a truck hauling cows and some of the cows were killed in the accident. ( Tom Heffernan Sr. / Special to the Times Union )

Firefighters work the scene of an accident on Tuesday, April 15, 2014, in Berne, N.Y. The accident involved a truck hauling cows and some of the cows were killed in the accident. ( Tom Heffernan Sr. / Special to the Times Union )

Firefighters work the scene of an accident on Tuesday, April 15, 2014, in Berne, N.Y. The accident involved a truck hauling cows and some of the cows were killed in the accident. ( Tom Heffernan Sr. / Special to the Times Union )

Firefighters work the scene of an accident on Tuesday, April 15, 2014, in Berne, N.Y. The accident involved a truck hauling cows and some of the cows were killed in the accident. ( Tom Heffernan Sr. / Special to the Times Union )

A view of a memorial that PETA wants to put up in Berne to remember...

Amrit Singh is seen at an Albany Vegan Network speaker dinner at the Century House the night before the Albany Veg Fest which was held at the Polish Community Center in November 2013. (Photo courtesy of Drew Buonaiuto)

A nationwide campaign to erect roadside memorials for farm animals killed in vehicle accidents has arrived in Berne, site of a recent truck rollover that killed 11 cows.

Amrit Singh of Colonie applied to Albany County to put up a 10-foot-tall tombstone on a Rock Road right-of-way that commemorates the lives of 11 cattle killed April 15 at the intersection of Switzkill Road.

A trucker hauling 104 cows to Kansas from the CN Tommell Cattle Company's farm tipped the 18-wheeler he was driving around a turn on Rock Road about a mile from the farm, according to authorities. Responders reported seeing several dead, dazed and injured cows. Workers cut into the top of the overturned truck to free some of the trapped animals. Five died instantly and six injured cows had to be euthanized at the scene, police said.

Accident reports horrified Singh, a 41-year-old member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Albany Vegan Network. She sent a letter this week to county Public Works Commissioner Darrell Duncan seeking permission to place a roadside memorial for the lost cattle on county land for at least a month. Singh and PETA hope the memorial offers food for thought to motorists in New York, a state that ranks 21st in the nation in heads of cattle with an estimated 1,450,000.

"These intelligent animals are crammed into trucks and hauled in all weather extremes without food, water, or veterinary care, just so that they can be eaten," Singh told Duncan. The memorial will "help prevent future accidents and make the roads safer for everyone by reminding tractor-trailer drivers of their responsibility to the thousands of animals they haul every year as well as to the motorists whose lives are endangered when a tractor-trailer crashes."

The granite marker would be paid for by PETA, which tracks farm animal deaths on roadways. The memorial would read: "In memory of the 11 terrified cows who died here in a truck crash April 15, 2014." The inscription includes the sign-off, "Try vegan."

The accident in Berne occurred around 10:45 a.m., shortly after Michael Volmering, a driver hired by the cattle company, left the Tommell farm. Volmering was transporting the young cows to a feedlot in Kansas for fattening, said Charles Tommell Jr., owner of the farm in Berne. Police ticketed Volmering, a resident of Harbor Beach, Mich., for imprudent speed, county Sheriff Craig Apple said.

Tommell, 37, works as a cattle dealer and owns about 1,500 cows. He said Volmering was an experienced driver who was carrying a load that fell within the state's authorized 80,000-pound threshold. "This is something I do on a regular basis and we have no problems with the health and welfare of the cattle on these trips," Tommell said. He said he treats his animals compassionately, and cows he sends to Kansas are removed from trailers and rested halfway through the trip. Tommell demurred when asked about PETA's proposed memorial.

"I'm trying to absorb that in my mind a little bit," Tommell said. After a moment, he replied, "I don't think it's appropriate. I don't feel like I want to be reminded of something we wish didn't happen."

PETA's effort in Berne is the organization's latest attempt to mark locations where vehicle accidents have claimed the lives of farm animals. A PETA member in Iowa recently tried to build a temporary 10-foot tombstone in remembrance of more than 500 turkeys killed in an April 12 crash in Sioux City. PETA also applied for a marker in Gainesville, Ga., where dozens of chickens died in an overturned truck in January, and a couple of other locations in the U.S.

A 2006 study done by Farm Sanctuary found 233 vehicle accidents had killed more than 27,000 farm animals in a six-year period. More than half the accidents involved a single vehicle, and the most common cause was a failure to negotiate turns, according to the study.

As of Thursday, none of PETA's applications for memorials had been accepted. "We want to set a precedent" in Berne, said Laura Cascada, PETA's senior campaign coordinator in Norfolk, Va. Albany County officials, however, said Thursday that PETA shouldn't get its hopes up.

"We could not possibly allow anyone to put anything on a county right-of-way," county spokesperson Mary Rozak said. "If there was an accident or injury, or if someone came in contact with it, we would be liable. A private landowner might allow that."